A Liberal MPP would “cheerfully” run up the province’s debt again, saying he’s proud of his party’s 15-year record in government.

As first reported in the Mississauga News, local MPP Bob Delaney reacted strongly to criticism of his government’s spending Thursday during a “budget breakfast.”

Ontario can easily carry its current debt load, insisted the MPP for Mississauga-Streetsville.

“I would do it again and I would do it proudly,” Delaney said of the debt incurred, according to an audio recording of the event. “I would cheerfully do it again.”

Ontario now carries a debt of more than $300 billion, up from about $140 billion from the time the Liberals took office in 2003.

Much of the new debt was accumulated after the 2008-09 recession as the Ontario government bailed out the auto industry and began borrowing billions every year to cover operating costs.

However, having finally balanced the books this past year, Premier Kathleen Wynne is proposing six more years of deficits.

In an interview with the Toronto Sun Monday, Delaney said he was talking about the many investments the government had made in Mississauga — especially following the recession — in post-secondary education, hospitals and transportation.

“I was very proud of those projects … I would be pleased to go into the streets with that track record and I would do it again,” he said.

PC finance critic Vic Fedeli said the Liberals clearly don’t understand the pain they’ve inflicted on Ontarians with their budget deficits and plans for even more borrowing.

“They simply do not understand the fiscal reality and how people shake their head at that when they’re hurting all throughout Ontario,” Fedeli said. “We still have the highest hydro rates in North America; we still have this red tape that’s crushing businesses; we have businesses that are leaving Ontario; and more importantly we have businesses that announce they’re not coming to Ontario.”

Amazon and Google recently announced first ever data centres in Canada, and chose to locate them in Quebec, Fedeli said.

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